STAY IN JESUS’ PRESENCE BECAUSE HE IS ALWAYS WITH YOU

In the 80s and 90s, when mega toy store Toys ‘R Us was expanding globally, their jingle would ring out incessantly on every media there was, declaring to the world, “I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys ‘R Us kid.” It spoke of how wonderful the store was to children and for children. But sadly, the children always ended the song by acknowledging that membership to Toys ‘R Us was dependent on age and it would one day be taken away from them, once they grew up.

Beloved, Jesus wants you to know that being in the presence of our Father is just like a child being in Toys ‘R Us. Everything that we could ever wish for and imagine will be there, and then some. But what is even better than that, is that we will never outgrow this privilege, nor will it ever be taken away from us. For as long as we want to stay in the presence of the Lord, so shall it be for us.

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:1-3

Jesus guarantees us that there will come a time when we will be with Him, literally, not merely figuratively or virtually. And in this interim, we can take comfort in the fact that He is preparing our place for us. But even though Jesus is not here in the body, He has sent His Spirit to be with us and guide us and teach us.

“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from me and delivers to you.’” John 16:12-15 [MSG]

So for now, His Spirit is with us, and takes everything from Him and delivers them to us. Even though Jesus is not with us physically, Heaven’s treasures are already ours to claim and ours to have because He has said that everything the Father has is also mine, and what we ask for, it will be delivered to us. For He has said,

“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:13-14

And do you notice how those things will be given to us? Yes, it will be delivered.

Our Father is not some medieval king who sends his knights out on quests in order that they may be rewarded. No. Our Father says come. Your treasure is here. And if you are unable to reach me at this time, for one reason or other, it’s ok. For you who believe in me, I will deliver it to you. How wonderful the love of our Father is!

So what is there in the presence of our Father?

“Honor and majesty are [found] in His presence; strength and joy are [found] in His sanctuary.” 1 Chronicles 16:27 [AMPC]

Name, fame, honor, strength and happiness. There is not one person, living or dead, who would not want at least one of these things. And they are all found in the presence of our Father.

“You will show me the path of life;In Your presence is fullness of joy;At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11

In His presence is also wisdom and enlightenment and not only is there joy, there, our joy is full, complete, everlasting, nothing lacking, never passing away.

“You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presenceFrom the plots of man;You shall keep them secretly in a pavilionFrom the strife of tongues.” Psalm 31:20

In His presence is also protection. And not merely protection from calamity, protection from the worst and most prevalent calamity of all, the plots of man and the strife of tongues; office politics. Jesus says we shall be hidden in a secret place, twice. That is how secret that place is. So therefore that is how secure we are when we are in His protection, in His presence.

And if your enemies are foolishly determined enough to try again, here is the revelation that our Father gave to the Psalmist,

But perhaps the most beautiful of all the things that are there in His presence, is the knowledge and assurance that we are right with God our Father. For it is written,

“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” Acts 3:19

Beloved, you who have repented, that is to say turn away from your own self efforts to be right with God and relied on Jesus’ redeeming power, your sins are now blotted out because Jesus said,

“For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Matthew 26:28

And when you are fully aware of how clean you are, you will be refreshed, enliven, heart lightened, because you are now no longer burdened by the weight of the guilt that your sin used to put on you.

But, you wonder, I am here, and God is there. Must I die in order that I be in His presence and enjoy all this? Well, beloved, yes and know.

The apostle Paul tells us that we, who believe, have already died with Christ when Christ died on the cross for our sins, and when He rose again, we also rose with Him and are therefore now alive in Him (Romans 6:3-11). So yes, we needed to die. But that’s already done.

So because that is already done, we can now come boldly into the presence of our Father because our hearts have already been cleansed and our bodies washed by Jesus’ death on the cross. And we are confident of this because He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:19-23).

But more than that, beloved, take heart because our Father does not deal only in the realm of the ephemeral, the intangible. He is very much in the here and now. For just as He told Israel as they were preparing to leave Egypt,

“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14

His presence is with us today, right now, and in His presence, we can find rest.

So how do you know that you are in the presence of God? Well, how do you know that you are in the presence of your earthly father? You hear him, you know he is looking out for you, you converse with him, you commune with him. So in the same, we are conscious of being in our Father’s presence when we converse with Him through prayer, we hear Him and see Him in the little miracles that happen in our lives, we commune with Him at meal times, and we feel His leading through The Spirit.

Beloved, for us to be in His presence is also not a one-sided desire. Our Father and Jesus want us there too. He is always with us for the Psalmist says,

“Where can I go from Your Spirit?Or where can I flee from Your presence?” Psalm 139:7

It’s just that we do not feel it sometimes.

Jesus is always there with us. We, who believe, are always in His presence. So be conscious of that all the time. And when you are, just like a child who knows that daddy is always behind him, we will feel protected, we will feel cared for, we will feel provided for, because we are.